This show at Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC Jouy-en-Josas), Paris, was filmed for French TV. Good quality footage but unfortunate that it’s the 1974 touring band. Setlist – Mirror Man – Upon The My-O-My – Full Moon, Hot Sun – Crazy Little Thing – Sweet Georgia Brown – Peaches – Take Me To Your House/Who’ll Be The Next? (Chester Burnett) – You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Yer Bond (Traditional)Read More →

In May 1968 the band were touring Europe and they performed at the Palazzo della Sport as part of the Rome Pop Festival. The BBC filmed parts of the festival for a 40 minute programme which was broadcast in the UK. Sadly there’s less than a minute of footage showing the band in full flight with a recording of Sure Nuff N Yes I Do played over the top. It’s unknown if more of their performance was filmed and even if it was it has been long lost to the cutting room floor. What a film that could have been!     The full BBCRead More →

A surreal few minutes here as Don is interviewed on the telephone on American Bandstand by one of the show’s young girl dancers promoting the Diddy Wah Diddy single. Don plays the game as he is asked some banal questions … a few years later he would give interviewers short shrift if they asked him this sort of stuff. A great piece of vintage television.  Read More →

Some wonderful archive footage, albeit very poor quality, of the early Beefheart band appearing on Dick Clark’s TV show Where The Action Is. The band is, left to right Alex Snouffer, Doug Moon, Don, Jerry Handley and with Vic Mortenson on drums. Here the band are miming to their first single  ‘Who Do You Think You’re Foolin’?’  and ‘Diddy Wah Diddy‘ on a beach with bikini babes dancing around them. This wouldn’t be the last time the band would be filmed performing on a beach.  Read More →

It has long been rumoured that this tour financed by Warner Records had a film crew following it but no footage has ever surfaced. However, John French has confirmed that parts of this tour were filmed and that a film does exist: There was a cameraman, Larry Sechrist, and a sound man, John Fizzdale. They brought the film up to Santa Cruz for us to see. I wasn’t very impressed, but I’m sure fans will love it. I did a cancer benefit with Henry Kaiser in Ventura, and the guy who owned the club said that he owned the film. He promised to send aRead More →

On 27 January 1968 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band performed on the beach at Cannes, France, in front of the Martinez Hotel. They were in Cannes to perform at the MIDEM music festival. It was filmed for the French TV show Bouton Rouge. The videos of Electricity and Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do are a fantastic document of a tight band on the rise: (Note: this film of Sure Nuff is in black and white – not sure why – but good quality as it’s been uploaded by Ina.fr who own the original footage. Sadly they haven’t made Electricity available.) This video ofRead More →